Bob Dylan's contribution to popular music is immeasurable. Venerated as
rock's one true genius, Dylan is considered responsible for introducing
a new range of topics and new lyrical complexity into popular music.
Without Bob Dylan, rock critic Dave Marsh once claimed, there would be
no popular music as we understand it today.
As such an exalted figure, Dylan has been the subject of countless books
and intricate scholarship considering various dimensions of both the man
and his music. This book places new emphasis on Dylan as a rock star.
Whatever else Dylan is, he is a star - iconic, charismatic, legendary,
enigmatic. No one else in popular music has maintained such star status
for so long a period of time.
Showing how theories of stardom can help us understand both Bob Dylan
and the history of rock music, Lee Marshall provides new insight into
how Dylan's songs acquire meaning and affects his relationship with his
fans, his critics and the recording industry. Marshall discusses Dylan's
emergence as a star in the folk revival (the "spokesman for a
generation") and the formative role that Dylan plays in creating a new
type of music - rock - and a new type of star. Bringing the book right
up to date, he also sheds new light on how Dylan's later career has been
shaped by his earlier star image and how Dylan repeatedly tried to throw
off the limitations and responsibilities of his stardom.
The book concludes by considering the revival of Dylan over the past ten
years and how Dylan's stardom has developed in a way that contains, but
is not overshadowed by, his achievements in the 1960s.
